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DOWNSIZED PACKAGES: SAME PRICE BUYS LESS

by Vanessa Cortez, staff writer [October 8, 2011]

[WeeklyUniverse.com] Supermarket food prices are on the rise -- but struggling shoppers may not have noticed! That's because sleaze & greed corporations have found a sneaky way to hide their price-gouging from consumers -- but charging the same prices while shrinking the package sizes!

The Weekly Universe first reported on this phenomenon two years ago, when it exposed Chicken of the Sea's downsizing of their "Chunk Style Pink Salmon in Water -- Skinless Boneless" from 6 oz cans to 5 oz cans -- with no discernable price drop!

Since then, other products have followed this deceptive marketing practice!

Planters Deluxe Mixed Nuts downsized its can from 21 oz to 18.25 oz -- without downsizing their price! The below cans were both purchased at the Santa Monica Vons supermarket for $9.99. The 21 oz can was bought this past spring, while the 18.25 oz can was purchased during the summer.

Shoppers paid the same $9.99 for the Planters Deluxe Mixed Nuts throughout 2011 -- and unless they were paying attention! -- would not have noticed that their $9.99 now bought fewer nuts!

Not only food, but free amenities are being downsized as America continues to hobble through its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Starbucks -- home of budget-busting coffee -- has now cut back on its complimentary napkins!

The new smaller napkin (right) has replaced the larger napkin (left) at the Starbucks on Wilshire Blvd & 26th Street in Santa Monica, CA. Not every Starbucks in Santa Monica has yet made the switch, but we expect that will happen as they run out of the larger napkins.

Starbucks's great napkin switch is likely also continuing throughout the United States -- and throughout the world!

But at least napkins are free -- unlike the many other consumer goods that are being downsized in amount, with no comparable downsized in price. No wonder people are occupying Wall Street!

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ADDENDUM [June 7, 2015]: Since filing this report four years ago, Planters Deluxe Mixed Nuts has been downsized yet again -- from 18.25 oz to 15.25 oz. And the price has risen from $9.99 to $13.98. That's an approximately 92% price increase in four years -- a nearly doubling of the price!

Vanessa Cortez is a Los Angeles based tabloid reporter who investigates the occult underbelly of the entertainment industry. Read more about her journalism in Hollywood Witches.

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